This invention relates generally to medical equipment intended to increase oxygenation of the blood of a patient who has insufficient pressure in the lungs following exhalation.
Patients in respiratory distress are often hospitalized and, sometimes, require invasive treatment such as intubation and being connected to a machine that both inhales and exhales for them. An electrical breathing machine may be incorporated to generate the mechanics of breathing. The patient in such cases may be unable to inhale or exhale on his own, or at least efficiently. In such instances, doctors may desire respiratory treatments intended to increase the oxygenation of the patient's blood by increasing pressure in the patient's airway.
However, there are patients and even athletes that have non-critical respiratory ailments or conditions that could benefit from increasing the pressure within their airway and, as a result, increasing the oxygenation of their blood. Such individuals are not intubated and do not require a breathing machine to either inhale ambient air or exhale air from their lungs. Putting positive pressure on the lungs of an otherwise unassisted breathing patient or user, such as by resisting normal exhalation, would enhance the oxygenation of the patient's blood and improve his breathing capacity or efficiency.
Although presumably effective for its intended use, the current method of treating a dangerously distressed patient with a full ventilator and intubated patient is undesirable for a patient that is not intubated and not being treated on a full ventilator setup. Stated another way, it would be desirable for a patient capable of inhaling and exhaling on his own to have a bi-directional oxygenation apparatus that allows the patient to inhale air through his mouth and then to exhale through his mouth with mechanical resistance being given to the exhalation, whereby to increase the pressure on the airway, expand any collapsed alveoli in the lungs and, as a result, increase oxygenation of the blood. In addition, it would be desirable to have a bi-directional oxygenation apparatus having a mouthpiece.